: Hi John;

: Hey, it's looking mighty good! How many stations did you settle on? It looks
: like you used even less than my GB, which used 10. What are the dimensions
: of your 'yak?

: My hull was free of the forms too early also - I used some hot glue to
: temporarily fix the forms while I built the deck. Now you see another
: reason to solidly attach the sheer strips to the forms . . . ;-)

: Keep up the great work, Spidey

Hi All,

I will try to answer the questions as best I can. I used the dimensions of Nick Schade's Little Auk and stretch it to about 12'with the beam being 28" as Nick's is. I used the free download kayak design program called BEARBACK which was mentioned on this board. It allows you to design a kayak without being smart. It gives you options of a flat, semi-rounded or mostly rounded haul. I chose the rounded one but at the time I didn't like the looks in the front portion of the kayak because it looked like the strips wouldn't lay well and they didn't. The program wouldn't allow me to change this portion of the haul to something that looked better. That's why I said on an earlier post that the boat was telling me how it wanted to be built and so I added to the the 3 sections you see in the picture. I use 7 cross sections spaced about 18" apart but if I did it again I would add one to two more. The BearBack program easily generates as many sections as you want.

The shape and size of this boat will lend itself to carrying more of a load and portageing which I hope to try in the MN canoe country this Fall. I had never even thought of this a month ago. I feel I am just along for the ride and this boat is making our decisions for us.

The wood starting at the shear is Black Walnut I got from my woods, Chained sawed out of an already fallen tree, planed, dried, etc. A lot of work for a few strip and I didn't know about the Wood Gold Mine near me at the time or I would have just bought it for 50 cents a pound. The next strip is white pine and the haul is a really nice red cedar that I got from searching through piles of lumber at Menards. I also found some deep red cedar that I will use on the deck.

As for fiber glassing the inside of the haul at this time? I am afraid that the sanding and scraping might cause it to come apart. Maybe it wouldn't. But if I did fiber glass inside the haul,,, it looks like the forms wouldn't fit back into the haul when I get ready to build the deck. This is a lot of fun.

John